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5
Public Health Department,
Council Offices,
Billet Lane,
HORNCHURCH
8th September, 1948.
To the Chairman and Members of the
Hornchurch Urban District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to present the Annual Report for 1947.
Opportunity has been taken in this report to enlarge the scope
of previous recent annual reports with a view to providing a somewhat
greater insight into the affairs of the public health in what
has been and is a rapidly expanding district.
The vital statistics for the year showed a satisfactory trend.
The birth rate remained high, the death rate low and the infant
mortality rate also touched a low figure.
The incidence of infectious disease was in general low although
a periodic epidemic of Measles, with however no fatal cases, falls
to be noted.
Special mention is made later in the report of how our area
fared in the general epidemic of the diseases of the Poliomyelitis
Group (the term Infantile Paralysis is rapidly falling into
desuetude).
Special mention should also be made of the fact that throughout
the year there was not a single case of Diphtheria.
Tuberculosis showed a slight increase in the number of notifications
with a decrease in the number of deaths. This disease,
however, retains a disappointingly high and continuous incidence.
Very considerable progress was made in the provision of new
houses during the year and our area remains fortunate in that the
average age of its houses must be considerably lower than that of
a vast majority of districts comparable in size.
No greater contribution can be made to the cause of preventive
medicine than the provision of a satisfactory standard of housing
for everyone.
I beg to acknowledge with gratitude the support accorded to me
by the Public Health and other Committees of the Council and
would also express my appreciation of the help afforded me by my
colleagues in other Council departments and by my own staff.
James Gorman, M.B., Ch.B., D.P.H.,
Medical Officer of Health